UITableView backgroundColor always gray on iPad

Question

Try one of these.

[myTableView setBackgroundView:nil];
[myTableView setBackgroundView:[[[UIView alloc] init] autorelease]];

Thanks a lot for this solution. I applied this on a UITableView property with IBOutlet in a UIViewController and it works well like:

[panelTable setBackgroundView:nil];
[panelTable setBackgroundView:[[[UIView alloc] init] autorelease]];
[panelTable setBackgroundColor:UIColor.clearColor]; // Make the table view transparent

On iPad the backgroundView property seems to be used to create the gray background color for grouped tables. So for changing the background color for grouped tables on iPad one should nil out the backgroundView property and then set the backgroundColor on the desired table view.

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];

    // If you need to support iOS < 3.2, check for the availability of the
    // backgroundView property.
    if ([self.tableView respondsToSelector:@selector(setBackgroundView:)]) {
        self.tableView.backgroundView = nil;
    }
    self.tableView.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
}

I think it is worth noting that as of Xcode 6.1 and iOS 8.1, specifically for iPad (if you want to set cell background as well) it seems that you must set table background AND cell background.

For instance, on an iPhone storyboard you can set a cell to clear color, then set background image of table programmatically for a transparent table with background image. However if you were to view this same configuration on iPad the cells would not be clear. Cells will need to be set to clear programmatically for iPad.

tried setting backgroundColor and View for the table, had no luck (Xcode 5 iOS7.1 iPad simulator), looked OK for iPhone, but light grey background color on iPad...

working with backgroundColor for the cell itself fixed this for me on iOS 7.1 4/2014

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {

        static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"ViewSomeTriggerCell";

        // get a cell or a recycled cell
        sictVCViewSomeTriggerCell *cellTrigger = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier forIndexPath:indexPath];

        // put a picture and a word in the cell (positions set in .xib)
        NSString * tname = [self.fetchedTriggersArray objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
        cellTrigger.imageTrigger.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"icon_appicon.png"];
        cellTrigger.labelName.text = tname;

        // set background color, defeats iPad wierdness
        // http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2688007/uitableview-backgroundcolor-always-gray-on-ipad

        // clearColor is what I wanted, and it worked, also tested with purpleColor
        cellTrigger.backgroundColor =[UIColor clearColor];
        return cellTrigger;

}